The Last Days of Summer and a McCalls 6887

Morning! I had two choices today after getting my guy off to work: go back to bed to maybe give myself an extra hour of sleep, or chug my coffee and get online. I always choose the second option.

As the summer days start to fleet away, I like to let myself go back to bed, maybe just a couple of times, just to know what it feels like to sleep in a little on a weekday. It very rarely happens though. And this particular morning, how could I be sleeping when I have a new dress to tell everyone about?

I have found some leisure time, and I finally got in front of my sewing machine. I really had high hopes when this summer started to have a handful of new dresses. My final count so far is three for me and one for my friends precious little baby girl. You want to know what else? I didn’t even make a single fabric order this summer. In fact, I haven’t even browsed fabric.com in months, what!?

No online fabric orders, but that doesn’t mean I went without. I did make a couple of local fabric purchases from my friendly neighborhood Walmart. I am impressed with their new line of fabric, and after this dress, I want to go and buy a lot more. And the pattern, it was McCall’s 6887. I am not too familiar with McCalls patterns. I have plenty, yes, but I can’t remember the last time that I have made one of them. I am positive it was at least long enough back that I didn’t really know what I was doing. I thought a little bit about which size to make and ultimately decided on the 8, which is my usual Simplicity size. Those finished garment measurements took me a little time to find. There were some on the back of the pattern, but I didn’t see the waist measurement, and that is one you need to know, especially with a fit and flare style dress.

My only adjustment was with the front princess seams. They were too big and puffed out from my body so I had to take them in. I didn’t realize until after the dress was done, when I was looking for the button info, that there were special sizes for this part of the dress ranging from A-D. I unknowingly used the D. Maybe I still don’t know what I am doing. Ugh, so my only mistake and it could have been prevented, and the dress probably would have fit much better had I just read my pieces correctly and used the right size.

Everything else fit fine. I am hoping that by being a little more careful the next time I make this, I will eliminate any fitting issues. I thought that my messing with the princess seams made them look a little off, making them more towards the side seam than they should be, but then I really looked at the pattern envelope and noticed that the model’s had the same look with the example dress she was wearing. I feel better about the way mine look now. I still don’t feel any better about my silly mistake. The finished feel of these seams is the only thing that I am not crazy about with the dress. Everything else, I just adore – especially the back cut out – so hopefully that will be enough to make me soon forget about my dumb mistake.

The back cut out is a neat little feature, and I made buttonholes that don’t look too bad! Now getting a good picture to show it was the hard part. I made a special trip for the buttons, because having buttons on hand was something I have never needed to worry about before, and I don’t have a lot in my stash. Not a problem; Walmart usually has stuff like that. I thought about just sewing the top shut and having the buttons for looks only (I was just able to pull the dress over my head with this closed up) but decided to make it as intended.

I did not follow the directions for this dress at all. This particular pattern was the choice for this year’s Outfit Along with lladybird.com. I didn’t get to make the dress when the online project was going on, and since I can’t get the time to sit down and knit, I opted out of the challenge once again. However, I did find her dress making tutorial for the M6887 very good, so I just used her instructions to make the whole dress a couple of months after OAL2015. She didn’t attach a lining, and I wasn’t going to either. The tutorial was great!

I used fabric scraps to make my own binding tape, and I love how it came out.

The only other thing I have to say about this one is that if I ever do make it again, which I am sure I will, I think I may go with a side inserted zipper, so that the back cut-out could definitely remain buttoned when getting in and out of the dress.

Very nice dress – I love the polka dots! I made this dress once, but not the cutout back version. It’s definitely cute and great for summer, so perhaps I should take another look at it. Also, I love the idea of using scraps for the binding. I never would have thought of that!

I am currently cutting all of my scraps that are big enough into 2 inch diagonal strips for binding pieces. I love the way they look! Thanks for your comment. I am gonna give the full back version a go one of these days. 🙂

Hi, Amy! Yes, there is a version without the cut-out. You should totally have a try at it. I actually hadn’t paid attention before if the pattern had a different back; I will probably try that one too. Thanks for the comment.